Beltana

Beltana is a town 540 kilometres (336 mi) north of Adelaide, South Australia.

Beltana is a town 540 kilometres (336 mi) north of Adelaide, South Australia. Beltana is known for continuing to exist long after the reasons for its existence had ceased. The town's history began in the 1870s with the advent of copper mining in the area, construction of the Australian Overland Telegraph Line and The Ghan railway and began to decline in 1941 with the beginning of coal mining at Leigh Creek. The fortune of the town was sealed by the 1983 realignment of the main road away from the town. The town, adjacent cemetery and railway structures are now part of a designated State Heritage Area declared in 1987.Beltana has important links with the overland telegraph, transcontinental railway, mining, outback services, Australian Inland Mission and also has "Afghan" sites relating to its past as a camel-based transport centre.The town has had horse racing since 1876, and the annual picnic races and gymkhana and biennial pastoral field day are still continued. There areservices and accommodation available at Beltana Station and there is an interpretive history trail and self-guided tour around the town. The Beltana roadhouse, now 12 kilometres (7.5 mi) from Beltana on the main highway between Parachilna and Leigh Creek, acted as the town's local store until it closed in 2016.

The original inhabitants were the Kuyani and Adnyamathanha Aboriginal people who used the area as a camp due to the nearby springs. With the arrival of Europeans their traditional lifestyle was disrupted andmany of them began working as stockmen on pastoral runs. During the early years of European settlement they kept a camp near Beltana Station but later moved closer to the town at Warrioota Creek. As the town was gradually depopulated some Aboriginal people occupied the abandoned buildings so by the late 1960s they again formed the majority of the population.

Beltana takes its name from that of a nearby sheep station, west of the current town, which provided a stopover point for travellers, missionaries, explorers, and miners. The name Beltana may have come from the Adnyamathanha word for running water or crossing of the waters or may be an adaptation of veldana for skin or cloak. Linguists have suggested that its origin lies in the Kuyani name for the location, Paltha-nha, although records and interpretations vary. It is likely to be associated with the nearby Warioota Creek, possibly at a junction with another creek. It may also have come from the village of Beltana, Tasmania, or a word about bravery or courage from Ireland, and finally one of the station managers believed it simply indicated the place where the station bell was rung.

Land in the area was first taken up for pastoral use by John Haines in 1854, taken over by Thomas Elder in 1862, and amalgamated in 1867 into the Beltana Pastoral Company of Elder and Samuel Stuckey. In 1866 Elder and Stuckey shipped in 109 "Afghans" and their camels, forming the basis for the area's mid-19th century transport.

The town’s first building was Martin’s Eating House, which was built in 1870 to take advantage of the discovery of copper at Sliding Rock, 20 kilometres (12 mi) east of Beltana. The town's location had already been chosen as a repeater station site for the Australian Overland Telegraph Line and in 1870 the telegraph contract of Charles Todd brought more life to the area, with a telegraph station set up next to the only house on the site.In 1873 the town was surveyed and laid out with an enthusiastic 115 allotments, room allowed for parklands and further expansion, with reserved allotments for a school, police station and hospital. On 2 October 1873, it was proclaimed under The Northern Townships Act 1872 as a town, and is sometimes referred to as a government town.In 1877 significant water was struck at the Sliding Rock mine and the mine failed, with many moving to Beltana. The mine's remnants survive today as the Sliding Rock Mine Ruins, which are listed on the South Australian Heritage Register.The failure of Sliding Rock coupled with the 1881 arrival of the railway brought an influx of families and within five years there was a brewery, store and school. Other copper mines in the area began working and the town became the railhead for copper ore, sheep and wool. In 1869 a ship, the Beltana, was a new ship built for the Port Augusta to London run and operated until 1897.

Beltana’s best time was between 1875 and the 1920s. During these years mining activity was at its height. The town supported a brewery, two hotels, post and telegraph office, school, police station, doctor, court-house, church, baker, butcher, blacksmith, hospital, railway station, cricket team, race meetings, a saddle maker, carriage maker, mining exchange, several shops and, at times, as many as 500 people.

Mechanisation, mine closure, drought and the Great Depression led to the slow decline of Beltana as a service centre for the region from 1920 onwards. The railway realignment consequent to gauge change in 1956 and road movement in 1983 completed the reversal of the town's fortune.

The town was, for some time, the starting point of many central Australian expeditions and explorations including those by Ernest Giles in 1872, Peter Warburton in 1873, Ross in 1874, Lewis in 1874-75, and Lawrence Wells in 1883.

With the loss of the railway, main road, mining, telegraph and the collapse of the nearby Leigh Creek coal mine, all of the original reasons for the town to exist have vanished. The population reached 9 in 1984 and today the town survives as a historic tourist site and living ghost town. The town does not have any piped water as the 1940s water pipe from Leigh Creek to Sliding Rock bypassed Beltana. Water is supplied from various wells and the old railway dam with Puttapa Springs, a permanent water source, 8 kilometres (5 mi) from the town.Most surviving buildings are now in private hands and not open to the public. There is an interpretive trail with signs detailing the history of many of the buildings in the town. Beltana has a campground run by the community that can be booked on Hipcamps.

In 1997, boundaries for a locality with the name of Beltana were established under the Geographical Names Act 1991 to "incorporate suburban areas to and adjacent areas to Beltana".These boundaries included the Government Town of Beltana.